"This essential service thing is semantics. We never spoke about it an a legal sense.
Everyone must work together on this to ensure education is uplifted," Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga told journalists in Parliament on Tuesday.

"We will leave no stone unturned to make teachers an essential service – education must be a priority – when you disrupt education you are not threatening life and death, but you are disrupting the future prospects of the country," governing party secretary general Gwede Mantashe said.

By declaring education essential, the rights of teachers and education professionals to protest will be rescinded, something the ANC said would lead to an immediate improvement in education.

Both the labour federation and the youth body claim education can best be improved by addressing learning conditions in schools as well as teachers' conditions of employment and not taking away their right to strike.

Not off the table
But Motshekga said on Tuesday that moves were never discussed to implement legislation that would make education an essential service.

Motshekga added it was the responsibility of government, state teachers, parents as well as learners to improve education in South Africa by working together.

Nonetheless, Motshekga did not rule out the possibility of this materialising in the future if the aforementioned strategy did not bear fruit.

"We may need to look at making education an essential service [in future]. For now we must cease hostilities and make it a priority," Motshekga added.

"So I don't know what will happen in the future, for now we are using the word 'essential' to show it is critical and must be worked on accordingly."

The minister also said she expected a "healthy" budget allocation for education when Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan unveils his 2013 budget on Wednesday.

"Education has always received a big part of the budget and I would expect that to continue," Motshekga added.